NEW YORK -- Major league baseball intends to go ahead with all its games in Toronto, despite a SARS outbreak there, but advised players to be cautious about personal hygiene.

"We have a lot of concerns but we also don't want to overreact,'' commissioner Bud Selig said Thursday.

"We are very sensitive and I am very concerned, but at this point our own doctors are telling us not to do anything differently,'' Selig told a group of Associated Press Sports Editors. "The advice we're getting internally is to proceed. Proceed with caution, but proceed.''

The Toronto Blue Jays begin a nine-game homestand Friday, hosting the Kansas City Royals.

Clearly concerned by the outbreak, the Royals packed bottles of disinfectant and embarked on an unsettling trip.

"I'm worried a little bit, yeah. I've got a family," outfielder Raul Ibanez said. "You try to take every precaution you can. If they say it's safe for us to go, I suppose it is. But I'm still going to take every precaution."

The apprehensive Royals traveled to Toronto on Thursday night. The Royals planned to stick close to their hotel when they're not at the ballpark.

They will be the first club to visit the city since baseball became concerned enough about the SARS outbreak there to issue precautions to teams.

Baseball's medical adviser, Dr. Elliot Pellman, held a conference call Thursday with clubs that are part of the upcoming homestand to advise them on how to avoid severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has killed 16 people in the Toronto area.

"The recommendations that Dr. Pellman made were pretty straightforward and had to do with hygiene, primarily -- eating utensils, hand-washing, that kind of thing,'' said Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office.

Pellman is advising teams to avoid public places where there are "intimate crowds'' -- packed rooms where several dozen people are congregating, Alderson said.

"He wasn't referring to shopping centers, he wasn't referring to airports, he wasn't referring to baseball stadiums,'' Alderson said.

Pellman said Wednesday that if players want to sign autographs, they should use their own pens.

"The emphasis today is on personal hygiene and not a concern about public facilities or public places,'' Alderson said.

Asked if it was safe for fans to attend the game in Toronto's SkyDome, Alderson said: "I think it would be proper to say that the risk is so remote that the best medical advice is that the games should go forward.''

Selig said he spoke to Paul Godfrey, president and CEO of the Blue Jays, who has complained that the SARS scare is hurting ticket sales.

"Paul Godfrey has said over and over that he thinks we're overreacting,'' Selig said. "I watched the mayor of Toronto today who's outraged at the coverage. ... On the other hand, we've all talked to not only our own medical people but other doctors. We're going to monitor the situation very closely.''

The World Health Organization has warned travelers to avoid Toronto because of SARS -- a decision that the Canadian federal government has asked the organization to rescind.